Category Archives: tax law and election law

“Political Activity Limits and Tax Exemption: A Gordian’s Knot”

August 18, 2014, 7:44 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Roger Colinvaux has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Virginia Tax Review). Here is the abstract: The article considers the correct tax treatment of political activity by the tax system and discusses the problems that have arisen from political activity… Continue reading

“Lois Lerner’s conservative bashing: Smoking gun or just cause for investigation?”

August 5, 2014, 8:32 amtax law and election lawRick Hasen

WaPo reports.

“Ends up Lois Lerner was e-mailing her husband with the conservative knock”

August 1, 2014, 4:07 pmtax law and election lawRick Hasen

WaPo reports.

In Personal Email, Lois Lerner Called Conservatives “Assholes”

July 30, 2014, 10:26 amtax law and election lawRick Hasen

WSJ: A newly discovered email shows that former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner once referred to conservatives as “—holes,” according to new documents released by House Republicans. In the November 2012 email exchange, apparently with a friend or… Continue reading

“IRS chief says agency no longer probing missing e-mails”

July 23, 2014, 7:42 pmtax law and election lawRick Hasen

WaPo: “The IRS has effectively halted its investigation of Lois Lerner’s missing e-mails to avoid interfering with an inspector general’s investigation, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen told lawmakers Wednesday on Capitol Hill.”

“IRS official: Lois Lerner email trail may not be cold”

July 21, 2014, 9:02 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Politico: “A top IRS official is now uncertain about whether backup tapes of the lost Lois Lerner emails may exist, according to testimony released by Republicans — a potentially significant plot twist in the controversy that has shaken the… Continue reading

“New report finds broad opposition to IRS regulations on political speech”

July 21, 2014, 8:38 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Press release: “87 percent of concerned individuals sampled and 97 percent of organizations, nonprofit experts, and public officials oppose to varying degrees IRS regulations limiting the speech rights of societally important social welfare organizations, according to a new report … Continue reading

“Six questions about the IRS’s missing emails, from IT experts”

July 21, 2014, 5:52 amtax law and election lawRick Hasen

WaPo reports.

“Tea party can pursue claims against IRS”

July 18, 2014, 8:37 amtax law and election lawRick Hasen

Cincinnati Enquirer: “Tea party groups won the right Thursday to pursue their claims against IRS employees in Cincinnati for improperly holding up their applications for tax-exempt status. U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott threw out some of the claims but… Continue reading

“Justice Dept. to Investigate Lost IRS Emails; Lost Messages Could Shed Light on Agency’s Treatment of Conservative Groups”

July 16, 2014, 2:08 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

WSJ breaks big news.

“A Year Into IRS Probe, Partisan Motives Still Prove Elusive”

July 15, 2014, 2:49 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Peter Overby reports for NPR.

“Hobbled IRS can’t stem ‘dark money’ flow; Mystery political spending to continue unabated through midterm elections”

July 15, 2014, 8:33 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Six month CPI investigation: The tea party scandal, combined with Congress systematically stripping the IRS of resources and clout over decades, has led to an exempt organizations division that has all but quit regulating politically active nonprofits in any… Continue reading

FEC Deadlocks on Cases Involving Americans for Job Security, American Action Network

July 14, 2014, 2:56 pmcampaign finance, federal election commission, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Bloomberg BNA Money and Politics Report breaking news: “The Federal Election Commission, in apparent deadlocked votes, has dismissed enforcement cases against two major conservative nonprofit groups that spent millions of dollars on political ads in the 2010 and 2012 elections.… Continue reading